Ladera Ranch resident Kate Lines stood staring at her Cadillac Escalade last Friday morning as the rain came down.

She was getting ready to take her five kids to school and had come out to her SUV on the driveway. She opened the door and saw wires sticking out where the dashboard cover was supposed to be, and the cover laying across the front seats. At first she thought it was a prank; then she ran in the house to call her husband and the police.

Sometime during the night, thieves had pried open the back window of her 2007 Escalade and stolen the SUV's third row leather seat, navigation system, DVD player and CD player.

"It's unnerving," Lines said. "My kids cried when they found out."

Lines' purse and her husband's wallet were in the car, but the thieves didn't take them, she said. Technicians from the county's crime lab came out to dust for fingerprints, but she was told the thieves appeared to have used globes.

Lines said she had heard a similar burglary happened the same night on nearby street, where another SUV had its third row seat ripped out.

And last month, the same thing happened with 13 SUVs at the Allen Cadillac dealership in Laguna Niguel, Orange County Sheriff's Department Jim Amormino said. GPS systems and third row seats were taken from those cars, he said.

Amormino said several organized crime rings targeting these types of burglaries are operating in California. The Sheriff's Department broke up one ring in Orange County several months ago and made some arrests, he said.

"Now it seems like it may be starting up again," he said.

Friday's incidents were the second string of thefts in two days in Ladera Ranch.

Not long after Lines discovered the damage to her SUV on Friday, 19-year-old William Kuwann Turner pleaded not guilty to charges of felony grand theft and receiving stolen property related to a series of thefts that happened Jan. 23.

Deputies arrested Turner at 10:30 a.m. that day after he was found hiding in the bushes at Oak Tree Park in Las Flores, Orange County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Mike Pixomapis said.

Authorities had been searching the area since about 5:30 a.m. after receiving a call about a burglary in progress. In all, there were nine calls from Ladera Ranch residents reporting their vehicles had been burglarized. The thefts took place on Winfield Drive, Calm Creek Circle, Skywood Street, Winslow Street and Hempstead Street, police said.

Residents reported computers, electronic tablets, purses, wallets and gift cards had been stolen from their cars. There was no sign of forced entry into the vehicles, which had been left unlocked, Pixomapis said.

Turner was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property after a credit card from one of the victims was found on him, and he also matched the description given by several victims, Pixomapis said. Some of the stolen property has been recovered, he said.

The Sheriff's Department is looking for two accomplices – a man and a woman, both 19. The woman was driving the trio in a burgundy Nissan Maxima.

Turner is being held at Theo Lacy Facility in Orange in lieu of $50,000 bail. He is facing felony charges of grand theft, unauthorized use of personal identifying information and receiving stolen property, and misdemeanor charges of petty theft and unlawful tampering with a vehicle, according to court records.

Anyone with information about the thefts should call the Sheriff's Department's nonemergency line at 949-770-6011 or report it anonymously to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS.

The dashboard of Kate Lines' Cadillac Escalade was ripped out by thieves who took the vehicle's navigation system, DVD player and CD player. MARIE EKBERG PADILLA, FOR THE REGISTER
Thieves stole the third-row seat from Kate Lines' Cadillac Escalade on Jan. 25. MARIE EKBERG PADILLA, FOR THE REGISTER
William Kuwann Turner, 19, was arrested on Jan. 23, on suspicion of possession of stolen property, following a string of vehicle thefts in Ladera Ranch. PHOTO COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

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